I am posting some lovely guest content during the Chapter break but I thought I'd post some of my own content as well!
In October a lot of artists participate in the Inktober Challenge. It means you have to make an inked drawing every day throughout the month. Some people do it once every other day or once a week too. I thought I'd take on the challenge since I feel like I need to step out of my comfort zone, draw more traditionally and also let myself draw other things than the comic to evolve as an artist. :) I also tried to use the official theme list for the challenge!
Here's the fourth part of the challenge! The choice of characters is a mix of The Din, D&D, Critical Role and my friends' characters!
I am posting some lovely guest content during the Chapter break but I thought I'd post some of my own content as well!
In October a lot of artists participate in the Inktober Challenge. It means you have to make an inked drawing every day throughout the month. Some people do it once every other day or once a week too. I thought I'd take on the challenge since I feel like I need to step out of my comfort zone, draw more traditionally and also let myself draw other things than the comic to evolve as an artist. :) I also tried to use the official theme list for the challenge!
Here's the third part of the challenge! The choice of characters is a mix of The Din, D&D, Critical Role and my friends' characters!
I am posting some lovely guest content during the Chapter break but I thought I'd post some of my own content as well!
In October a lot of artists participate in the Inktober Challenge. It means you have to make an inked drawing every day throughout the month. Some people do it once every other day or once a week too. I thought I'd take on the challenge since I feel like I need to step out of my comfort zone, draw more traditionally and also let myself draw other things than the comic to evolve as an artist. :) I also tried to use the official theme list for the challenge!
Here's the second part of the challenge! The choice of characters is a mix of The Din, D&D, Critical Role and my friends' characters!
I am posting some lovely guest content during the Chapter break but I thought I'd post some of my own content as well!
In October a lot of artists participate in the Inktober Challenge. It means you have to make an inked drawing every day throughout the month. Some people do it once every other day or once a week too. I thought I'd take on the challenge since I feel like I need to step out of my comfort zone, draw more traditionally and also let myself draw other things than the comic to evolve as an artist. :) I also tried to use the official theme list for the challenge!
Here's the first part of the challenge! The choice of characters is a mix of The Din, D&D, Critical Role and my friends' characters!
These lovely people helped me making it possible to take a break between chapters and the Kickstarter by sending in their guest work! I'm really grateful and happy about all of these lovely pieces! Thank you all! :)
Hello everyone! It's this time of the year again! If you are a fellow artist, read this!
A year ago I accepted guest comics to allow me some time to visit NYCC. The guest comics were really appreciated and I got some lovely content to post while I was gone. You can actually see last year's guest comics over at the Extras section!
Even though I have a pretty decent page buffer right now, I am actually looking for guest comics this year too! :) This time to post between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. It's going to be like a short chapter break with awesome guest content!
So how does it work? You create one or more Guest Comic pages for The Din and I will post them on the main site, starting sometime in the middle of October. Each page will be up for about half a week!
Here's some main points to keep track of:
Deadline is 30:th of September 2016!
Content needs to be related to The Din's story or/and characters in some way!
Any format is allowed! But just FYI I work in 4124 x 5953, sized down to 800 x 1155
Any art style is welcome!
You are welcome to include your own characters!
After the pages have been posted, they will be archived in the Extras section!
A link to your webcomic/website will be on the main page along with your Guest Comic!
Send the Guest Comic page, desired link URL and eventual link image to karin.rindevall@gmail.com
I wish I could pay you for making a Guest Comic, but right now a link back to your site is what I am able to offer.
Depending on the number of Guest Comics I get, I might spread the posting out a bit. I don't want to put the main story on hold too much! If I get more content than I'll be able to post in October, I will post the rest later after about 6 main-story pages.
Just a headsup: If your Guest Comic involves content that I don't feel comfortable posting on the main site, I might post it separately with a thumbnail on the main page. It's pretty much the same way I handle some of the more explicit content in the comic. :)
Now that I am back to my day job I unfortunately had to go back to 1x update/page a week again. But fear not! I have already started saving money and plan for the next time I can take time off my day job to work full time on The Din! I really want to be able to update twice a week soon again.
It takes me about 14-20 months to save the amount of money I need to pay my bills for 4-6 months. I really hope I can save enough to take time off again in about 14 months!
If you want to help me out saving money to work full time on The Din once in a while, becoming a patron at my patreon site is the perfect way to do so! It also helps me getting closer to make an actual living out of making comics, which is a bit of a goal and personal dream of mine.
What is Patreon?
Patreon is a platform where fans support their creators by donating/pledging on a monthly basis. Patreon is a great service for webcomic artists, podcasters, writers, youtubers etc. Sometimes you also get something exclusive for donating, such as digital wallpapers or behind the scenes material.
What do I get for becoming a Patron of The Din?
Right now I offer high resolution WIP-stages of every page I create for The Din at the 3$ tier. I post these weekly as the pages go up at the site. At the 10$ tier you will also get high resolution files of Covers, Prints and the PDF's of the Chapters once they are finished. These rewards are uploaded about once a year, but I plan on maybe uploading WIP versions regularly of the PDF's as well.
Of course it's also possible to donate 1$-2$ a month. Every bit helps a lot. :) I currently have no rewards for those tiers, though, except for my eternal gratitude and in the long run being able to update more than once a week!
So what does the WIP-pages you upload on Patreon look like?
This is what it looks like, but much bigger (about 1000 px in width). Click on the image for a slightly bigger preview-version!
It's usually posted in 6-7 stages of:
Thumbnail Sketch Cleanup Ink Flats Color Key Shading
Here's a slightly more closeup version of a panel in WIP-format. Click on the image for a slightly bigger preview-version!
I also upload a descriptive text of the page. Such as: when it was made, if I had anything specific in mind or ran into any issues and how I solved them. :)
The reason I use this tall format is because it's easier to scroll through rather than having it all in a row. I also noticed it looks really good when viewing on a tablet/iPad.
I know some of you expressed you really want to help out but can't afford becoming a patron. But do not fret! :) If you visit the website of The Din at regular basis you do in fact help out a lot!
With a frequent stream of visitors I do get revenue from the ads on my site. Visiting and spreading the word through social media helps more than you think! For that, you have my eternal gratitude~
That's about it! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. :)
Flat artists are amazing. Just the best~ When I wanted to wrap up the colors of Chapter 1 as fast as possible for a print deadline, I hired two flat artists: Randi and Annette. Unfortunately, for Chapter 2 I wasn't ahead of inked pages enough to hire flat art help, but I plan to do so again with Chapter 3!
Anyway, here's my blog post on Annette, my second flat artist!
Annette is an old friend and colleague of mine. We've been working together in the game industry since... 2010 I think? Or maybe even longer!
Anyway, at my first game dev job me and Annette, along with three other cool artists and writers, were assigned to work on a webcomic for the game we made. It was a bit of a side project from the usual game dev tasks we had. We had a lot of fun working on the comic and Annette did an amazing job with colors. So naturally, in 2013, I decided to ask her for some flat help!
Since I talked about my coloring and flat process back in the blog post about Randi, I'm just going to post a few examples of how me and Annette work specifically.
Just like Randi, Annette let's me know if I forgot anything in the line art or if anything looks wonky. Which is super helpful.
John with half a mustache. That's weird!
Me and Annette also have a habit of adding tons of weird stuff (mostly pixel:y blood) in eachother's work when we make paintovers or feedback. We do this at our day job too. You may call it childish, but it actually lightens up the mood a bit when you're stressed about deadlines! Here's a few of my favorites that Annette made on The Din pages. (Warning! Blood!)
There were already blood in this scene, so let's add some hearts, right?
Yes, we do have a sick sense of humor.
(It did get a bit out of hand at our old job though, since the comic we made were for a younger audience. There's always a risk that the feedback layer, that is not supposed to show up in the final product, might show up anyway! :S Never happened, but... in hindsight, it was a bit risky.)
If you are curious to see what comic me and Annette worked on back in the day, you can follow this link. It looked like this:
Annette has currently been doing flats on a total of 7 pages of The Din!
If you want to find Annette, this is her portfolio. She's also on Twitter and Tumblr. She is pretty awesome, one of the most awesome people I know of. She can do anything between art, design, crafts and programming + is a really quick learner. I am always blown away by the work she does.
And did you know? She's got a BAFTA! That's pretty amazing in my book.
- - - -
K: How long have you been working as a flat artist?
A: On and off to help out friends.
K: And how long as a game artist?
A: About 6 years now.
K: What kind of music do you listen to when you work?
A: A bit of everything, but mostly pop.
K: What is your weirdest/coolest experience as a flat/comic artist or game artist?
A: One of the funniest things is when Karin draws small easter eggs in hidden layers, and I often do the same.
K: Any advice to aspiring flat artists or game artists?
A: Learn a bit of every step of the process, even if you just wish to focus on a specific part. It's surprisingly helpful!
K: What was your favorite part to flat of The Din?
A: The burning building. ;_; (I liked the color scheme!)
Just want to remind you all that my KICKSTARTER ends in less than 2 days! The campaign was funded two days ago, so if you really want the books - now is a good time. :)
Check it out! If you are not able to back, you can always help me spread the word by sharing on facebook or twitter!
Right now we're aiming for the awesome stretch goals. Read about them here:
That's about it! Thanks everyone for the support this far! :)
We're currently at 85% with 9 days left to back. :) I'm really excited! Thank you everyone who helped me by backing, sharing the Kickstarter and just being generally supportive. You're all the best!
I'm going to keep promoting this campaign over at my facebook page, my twitter and my tumblr. If you hang around any of those places, feel free to share my posts and updates to spread the word~
As some of you know I had a table this year too, and it was super nice! Good sales and met a lot of cool people and artists~
I tried something new this year; giving away free copies of the Prologue of The Din to promote the Kickstarter (the orange-colored cover in the picture). Turns out it was a success, because a lot of people came back to buy the Chapter 1 book after reading the Prologue! And I think some of my Kickstarter backers might be people I met at SIS! Though, I can't remember all of their names...
When I was at NYCC last year I noticed a lot of artists and publishers had freebies, so it was fun to try it out myself! One thing to keep in mind, if you are curious to try it out yourself: It should be part of your budget/plan/estimated sales. It's an investment to promote your comic, but you don't want to lose too much out of it either.
This is how I planned my freebies-print: How much of your estimated profit are you willing to put on promotion = the maximum amount of money you should spend on freebies! :)
Depending on the budget, you might end up with a small batch of freebies. But then the solution is to only give them away to those who seem geniunely interested. They will appreciate the gesture, tell their friends about your table and come back!
That's about it for now! Thanks for reading and I'll see you on Friday with the next comic update~ Wohoo!
